SINGAPORE:
The National Addictions Management
Service (NAMS) at the Institute of Mental Health saw a 27 per cent jump in the
number of gambling addiction cases in financial year 2010 ending March 31,
2011.
It
treated 398 patients, compared to 313 cases in 2009.
Sixty-five
per cent of the cases were new patients.
IMH
said more people are seeking help for gambling addiction possibly due to
increased awareness of problem gambling and treatment services available.
Gambling
addiction remains the third most common condition seen at the NAMS clinic,
after drug and alcohol addiction.
To
better reach out to problem gamblers who are not ready or unwilling to seek treatment,
NAMS has rolled out two initiatives targeted at problem gamblers and their
family members.
To help
gamblers who are experiencing minor to mild problems and those reluctant to
seek formal treatment despite severe problems, NAMS launched an online
interactive self-help workbook, said to be the first-of-its-kind in Singapore.
The
interactive workbook helps gamblers gain more insight into their behaviour,
such as the triggers for gambling and their distorted beliefs, and includes
information on how to develop strategies to say "no" to gambling
opportunities.
Lawrence
Tan, a NAMS psychologist who was a member of the team which came up with the
workbook, said: "Through this workbook, we hope to marry the benefits of
the Internet - the accessibility and flexibility it offers - with the
non-threatening concept of a self-guided intervention.
"While
this is a fairly new concept, there is empirical evidence that online
self-guided interventions are effective. However, they are meant only as a
treatment adjunct, and as a first step to raise the gambler's awareness of his
own gambling behaviour so that he/she can consider seeking professional
help," he said.
For
family members of gamblers who have yet to seek treatment, NAMS started a pilot
group called "Families in Recovery through Education &
Empowerment" (FREE) in May 2010 to help them better understand gambling
addiction and seek professional help.
So far,
195 participants have attended the sessions conducted in English and Mandarin,
between May 2010 and January 2012.
Associate
Professor Wong Kim Eng, Clinical Director of NAMS, commented, "The FREE
programme makes information and support from addictions professionals easily
accessible to families of problematic gamblers not in treatment.
"Our
study in 2011 found that despite facing greater psychological disturbance and
expressing a willingness to engage in counselling services, utilisation of
healthcare services among these family members were not greater than that of
the healthy controls. By offering this service, we want to reach out to these
families so that they do not have to struggle alone."
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CNA/cc
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